Sicilian Mafia Attempts To Buy Caribbean Island

March 6, 1993|Caribbean News Agency

A Sicilian family is reportedly trying to purchase control of the Caribbean island of Aruba to turn it into an independent Mafia-run state.

The Caruana Cuntrera clan already owns more than half of the property on the island, a self-governing possession of the Netherlands off the coast of Venezuela, the Corriere della Sera newspaper in Italy reported.

Friday`s Independent newspaper in London said that the financial brains behind the family, Alfonso Caruana, escaped extradition from Venezuela to Italy and is thought to be in Aruba.

Investigators think Caruana, who reputedly made millions as a drug-money launderer, sold a large area of land along the border between Venezuela and Colombia to the Gambino crime family from New York and used the proceeds in the Aruba deals.